Business growth is a difficult thing at times with so much to accomplish in terms of marketing, sales, and cash flow. One thing you can do with inexpensive equipment, a little know-how, and good stories is to create business growth through video. By 2019, most content consumed online will be video. Videos can help solve problems that crop in a person’s life (like the Dollar Shave Club intro video or the Chatbooks mom video). Videos can also tell amazing stories that people want to hear more about (think Red Bull’s Digging in the Carts series or Blendtec’s Will it Blend?).
Harnessing the power of video may help your business grow. If you’re looking for ways to grow your business, you may want to consider the following three video ideas for business growth.
Talking heads (aka interview videos)
You would be surprised as to how well these perform. In our experience, people speaking from authority or a place of importance (like a CEO or a doctor) capture the audience’s attention. The trick to these videos is to frame them in such a way that the video is interesting. Putting the subject off-center while still following the rule of thirds can be effective. Some slow panning across a shot is also effective. Make use of Facebook Live for these sorts of videos as well. As a note, if you put a title on the video to name the subject speaking, the text must be just big enough to read. Otherwise, Facebook may flag your video and not let you upload it.
Additionally, get to the point in these videos. If the interview is rambling on, you may want to reshoot the interview or cut to the highlights only. Unless you have a captive live studio audience with a famous celebrity (good luck with that), making the video short, sweet, and valuable is key.
Involve the emotions, whether the video is hilarious or tear-jerking
Think of some of your favorite videos online. They are most likely cute kittens, some humorous mishap, or that heartwarming father and son commercial from the Big Game. Video doesn’t have to be all interviews and people talking all the time. Storytelling can be formed through the B-roll of kids laughing at the dinner table, a businessman shedding his corporate shackles for a fly fishing vest, or a daughter meeting her biological mother for the first time.
Find stories within your business that touch you. They can be humorous incidents where you learned a lesson (the more painful, the better). Your customers may have an interaction with your brand that is poignant. Videos that involve the human emotions will most likely be far more effective than ones that are simply trying to sell a product.
Tell a story...across all channels
The world has changed how video is consumed. YouTube was once the one-stop shop for all things, but that is no longer the case. Video is now consumed on Instagram, Facebook, and (sometimes) Twitter. It’s important to think about video campaigns and serve up multiple versions of similar or extended content. Think about each channel in terms of retention. Start either slow like a mystery or hit them hard with an epic trailer on Instagram. The point is to get the audience consuming content across channels until they reach you.
Now, it is important to strategize your channels. If your customers rarely use Snapchat, then don’t invest time in it unless you can drive leads and customers that way. Think about the buyer’s journey and the five W’s of a buyer’s interaction with your brand.
With these tips in mind, go forth and grow your business with the power of video!
